http://www.newsday.com/sports/college/ny-spstaple0224,0,966986.columnSt. John's content to win old-school wayArthur Staple
11:53 AM EST, February 23, 2009
Norm Roberts is staying put. There are plenty of St. John's fans who will be pained to read those words, but they are the truth.
The school's athletic director, Chris Monasch, said as much during an interview with Mike Francesa last week. The school's president, Rev. Donald J. Harrington, said as much on Sunday at halftime of the Red Storm's win over Seton Hall.
"I'm very happy with Norm," Father Harrington said. "He's going to be here for a long time. At least, that's my hope."
The school president doesn't really have to hope in such cases. Harrington has hired and fired a pretty long list of coaches in his 20 years in charge of the school, so he's not one to offer up empty platitudes.
Roberts, now 61-81 in four-plus seasons, will finish this fifth season and get a sixth season. Maybe even a seventh, if things even start to pan out the way they should next season with a team full of juniors and one fifth-year senior.
From a basketball standpoint, Roberts' time has not been a success, obviously. Even with the hard-fought win over Seton Hall in a full Carnesecca Arena, the Red Storm is 13-14, 4-10 in the Big East. Roberts hasn't won more than seven conference games in any of his five seasons, and it would take a miracle to sweep these last four before his team makes only its second appearance in Madison Square Garden for the Big East tournament.
But, to look around Carnesecca on Sunday and see the folks in attendance is to see what has really changed at St. John's. There was Looie, up in the corner, holding court all halftime in the small gym he made big-time.
Nearby were Ron Rutledge and Brian Mahoney, two Carnesecca disciples who will always have a seat at the St. John's table for being part of Looie's crew.
Near them, longtime Molloy HS coach Jack Curran, an old friend of the school and Carnesecca.
This is not a gleaming new facility with big-ticket items like luxury boxes or even modern concession stands. It's an old-school place, with old-school folks on the scene.
And they want to win, but not at any cost. Fran Fraschilla won, but he he didn't project the right image for the program. Mike Jarvis won, too, but he wanted the big-time facilities to go along with national prominence.
St. John's still wants to win, like everyone else, but the school seems to want to do it in that old-school way -- without the flash and dash of the BCS schools. That may be hard to accept around here, but that's the way it is.
Bobby Gonzalez, also not a Father Harrington type of guy, said after his Seton Hall team lost on Sunday that playing in Carnesecca was a little like playing at Fordham or another mid-major school.
With Bobby, you never know if he's taking a jab, since he feels his team should play St. John's in the Garden. But he's right, in a way. Even with 5,602 fans packing Carnesecca, it didn't really feel like a Big East game.
Tuesday night, Syracuse comes to town. That'll be in the Garden, where a predominance of the 10-12,000 or so who'll be on hand will be wearing orange and blue for the visitors. Nothing new about that, and the only way to change those numbers is to do things that St. John's isn't prepared to do.
So, St. John's fans, you're stuck with Roberts. Blame the coach for the lack of results, if you want, but there is a bigger movement at work here.